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Observations on the Start of Another Term
I hate starting teaching in the middle of the week. I understand why we’re starting on a Wednesday. My OCD tendencies just don’t like it. Ditto for the last day of term, the first Wednesday in...
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On Again, Off Again Scheduling
This term I’m teaching three days a week: Monday, Wednesday and Friday. That leaves the other two days a week for research, writing and editing. It’s been a while since I’ve had two days in a term that...
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Be My Colleagues!
We’re hiring two tenure-track positions in the History/Histoire program at Laurentian. (1) Un poste francophone menant à la permanence en histoire autochtone nord-américaine au rang de professeur(e)...
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In the Restricted Section
Over the summer and unbeknownst to me, my university library moved all the U, V and Z (Library of Congress classifications) books out of the general circulations stacks and into storage. Err, the first...
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Assignment Policies: They Matter
I opened up my email this evening to see yet another student email with the familiar attachment icon. Oh, joy: another unwanted emailed assignment. You’d think I wouldn’t receive those since I have an...
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I Used To Believe in Renewal
I just saw another tweet scroll by commenting on how tenure-track jobs are scare because older profs are hanging onto their jobs. Whether that’s because they believe they need to (to build up their...
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So What (I’m Still a Rock Star)
I got a professional rejection today. Or, should I say, a rejection for a professional application: a research grant. The rejection itself wasn’t very professional. In fact, it was downright...
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Bingeing on Books
I wrapped up my winter’s term marking just as the last of the ice melted off of the lake. While getting back into my academic writing that’s been shelved most of the past month and pulling together the...
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Another Crop of Students Done
Yesterday I participated in an excellent graduate student’s M.A. thesis defense (in French – now that kept me on my passively-bilingual toes). This is the third student in nine months to complete an...
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University from Both Sides Now
Eldest has graduated high school and is preparing to start university this autumn. It’s been an exciting and occasionally stressful year in our household with her working through the process of...
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Virtue is. . .
Not sure if it’s a reward or what, but I’ve been spending most of this month with my nose to the proverbial grindstone. I’ve been marking and writing and preparing teaching. The writing has come to a...
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Reading London
I’m simultaneously shocked and tickled pink to be teaching a course relating to my research specialty at the graduate level. After more than a decade teaching historical methods and years before that...
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Short and Long Cycles (of Courses)
Publisher’s reps are emailing me with increasing frequency, asking what I’m teaching next year and what textbooks I’m going to adopt. I’ve had to consult some documentation to see what that will be...
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Looking Backwards, Looking Forwards
The teaching term has definitively ended and it was one of the best I’ve enjoyed in many years. However, if the term is over, the paperwork isn’t! Next week I have to polish off my annual report along...
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File Wrangling
I’ve spent a fair bit of time over the past two months wrangling files. Actually, I’ve hired someone to wrangle a lot of paper files – to shred some materials that needed to be securely eliminated as...
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It Can’t Be September
Because if it’s September I start teaching on the third. I also have article revisions due before mid-month. Eep! At least all my syllabi are ready. For those playing along at home, I’m teaching...
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Moving On Up
As of July, I’ll be a Full Professor of History here at Laurentian University. I had applied last July 1st, even though I was barely back on my feet after a spring sacrificed to illness and malaise. I...
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Student Depression: More Than Helicopter Parenting
You’ve seen the story making the rounds amongst parents and academics that correlates helicopter parenting with college-age depression. You might well have nodded along as you read the horrific stories...
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The Joys of a Good Teaching Text
Wednesday we’re back into the routine with three courses on tap for me this fall: Western Civilization (Renaissance to French Revolution), Early Medieval Europe and a graduate seminar on London...
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Planning for a Work-Study Student
After a long time working on other projects, I’m happy to be getting back into my research on early modern families and crime. The university approved my work-study application so that, starting this...
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